Should I move south of the border?

I
currently work as a management development consultant in a public sector
organisation in Scotland, a position which I have held for nearly two years.
I am a Graduate member of the CIPD and hold other T&D qualifications. I
feel the need to broaden my experience level and move to a new organisation.
However, most of the decent "next step" positions appear to be
in England. I have a young family and would be reluctant to uproot them. Can
you advise me on a suitable solution? My current salary package is not at all
bad. I would hate in five years time to be thinking "What if I had done
this or that …?"

This
is a predicament I have encountered quite frequently
recently when working with employees in the public sector who live
in Scotland, Wales or the South West. Many of them tell me that
they are compromising their pay to live in a beautiful and quiet
area. However, I agree with you that this is a good package
and I don’t think you would better it unless you took a job in the City,
with all that commuting entails, or a post of much more responsibility. So it
is a question of quality of life versus depth of pay packet! I
don’t think anyone can answer this for you as you need to decide what is really
important to you.

Vic
Daniels, director at Carr-Lyons, writes:

If
you have really undertaken your research and feel that the job for you is in
England, then you have no choice but to uproot. Life is full of opportunities
and risks and only you know whether you are prepared to take the gamble. Just
be sure that you explore all opportunities north of the border prior to making
this major life- altering decision. Good luck.

Linda
Aitken, consultant at Chiumento Consulting Group, writes:

Here
are some things you may wish to consider:

*
Complete any qualifications for which you are currently studying and will make
you even more marketable to a future employer

*
Use your training and development experience to move into a commercial
organisation in training and development

*
Reposition your CV to demonstrate the transferable skills that you could bring
to the private sector

*
Contact your local CIPD branch and make use of their network for exploring
opportunities with locally based organisations

*
Use any leads or other networks that you have to the full

*
Networking and cold calling work equally as well in Scotland as in England. Relatively
few vacancies are actually advertised, so don’t rely on them as an indicator of
the opportunities that exist